Christmas past and present
by Kaio Thor
Summary: Kazuto thought his proposal would send him to cloud 7 and not to the hospital. A little bit of an AU but still fitting in to the canon around the time after the GGO accident.


**Last Christmas**

* * *

 _Kirito's POV_

* * *

In the span of not even 48 hours I went from happy to almost comatose.

Now why would I, Kirigaya Kazuto, say something like this?

"With a harem of beautiful girls, how come you are so down about one girl rejecting you?" A friend of mine asked me during his visit.

I'll leave you to figure out who'd say something like that.

Anyway, I had just proposed to the one girl I wanted to spend the rest of my days with. I waited until the end of our date on Christmas eve before I pulled out the ring I had bought and went down on one knee, very cliché but I couldn't think of anything original so I just went with it.

Of course Asuna was surprised and didn't really know how to respond to my sudden proposal. After a few minutes of opening and closing her mouth, and sputtering some noises I couldn't quite identify, she asked me if it were okay if she answered me tomorrow. I complied and saw her of at the station before returning home myself.

I was so nervous that I found it hard to sleep that night.

The next day the sounds of someone shouting downstairs woke me up. My room is pretty soundproof so I didn't understand anything and tried to go back to sleep.

Now I know who was shouting and what it was about.

The culprits were my sister Suguha and the girl I proposed to, Asuna.

Asuna had come to give me the answer she promised me the night before but she lost her nerves and was about to just turn around as my sister noticed her on her way back from the dojo.

According to my mother she had to hold Suguha back because she was about to beat up the brunette with the new shinai I bought her for Christmas. And she yelled loud enough for the whole street to hear her.

After Asuna had left my mother and sister gave me the answer she had given them.

In denial I just stood up and left, taking my motorcycle to try and catch up with her.

I never did.

Trying to calm myself somewhat I drove around the city for a while. I didn't want to log into ALO at the time and going home just didn't seem like a good idea.

I was going faster and faster as I was weaving through the traffic. The feeling of the speed and the sudden movements to avoid people and cars were distracting me from my thoughts.

Suddenly a girl stumbled onto the street in front of me, not close enough for me to cause an accident but evading her brought me to the lane going in the opposite direction.

If the part of the street I was on right there wasn't frozen I would have made it back to the right lane and nothing would have happened, but it just wasn't my day I suppose.

My rear tire lost grip and my entire bike slipped away, crashing into a car and sending me flying in a spectacular arch before I crashed into the front window of the car behind the one my bike crashed into.

I don't remember much of what happened after that but I was told I was drifting in and out of consciousness so there are a few images I perceived through my pain filled vision.

One of those is the usual, a lot of unfamiliar faces looming over me, some of them with a look of shock while others were saying something about an ambulance coming.

The most vivid image however was a pair of red eyes full of guilt and concern, tears streaming down the cheeks. After that it was only darkness and voices shouting orders and medical terms.

I woke up two weeks later.

* * *

 **The year between**

* * *

Suguha didn't leave my side for more than a few minutes the whole week after I woke up, fearing I would just stay in coma the next time I closed my eyes. It took three doctors, five different nurses and two days of our parents' time to convince her otherwise and get her to go home again.

A few days passed quietly, the only thing disrupting my thoughts and the noise of the TV in my room were the visits of my friends.

Agil and Klein dropped by to see if I was fine and to scold me on driving around so dangerously after I told them what happened.

Silica was much like my sister but was dragged out by the nurse after visiting hours were over, she wasn't family after all.

Lizbeth would have probably gone and beat the living crap out of my ex if it hadn't been Asuna after she urged me to tell her what happened.

Sinon was calm as ever but I think I saw a light in her eyes that I had only seen a few times while we were hanging out in ALO without any of the other girls around. She made a point of visiting me at least once a week as long as I was in the hospital.

The last thing I expected while waiting for my bones to grow back together was to meet a new face, even less in my hospital room.

One afternoon nurse Konno entered the room around her usual time to change my bandages and check if everything was in order, only this time she had a girl in civilian clothes with her. The girl had long, flowing black hair and bright red eyes, she wore a light purple skirt that stopped just beneath her knees, a winter jacked in a darker shade of purple with a hood that had fur around the rim framing the face and had extension that looked like cat ears behind that. Underneath she wore a simple black shirt. Black tights covered her legs and equally black shoes her feet. She didn't appear as feminine as some of the other girls around me but that was hardly what caught my eye.

She was beautiful, no doubt, but what made me look twice were her eyes. Although she had a nervous smile on her face I recognized her eyes immediately.

She later told me that I had been staring at her for almost two minutes.

Well, I guess it took me a little bit longer to recognize her eyes…

After the awkwardness of those two minutes she bowed and apologized for causing the accident.

Another awkward silence followed while she kept her head down and avoided looking at me.

We had a long talk after her mother, her name was Konno Yuuki, left to take care of other patients.

Our first talk was mostly about me reassuring her that it was not her fault and that, aside from a few scars, I would be completely fine once my bones were completely healed. I really wasn't in a mood to hold any long winded conversation at the time but she refused to just leave and so we ended up talking until her mother took her home after her shift had ended.

Somehow we became friends after that.

The other girls I was friends with weren't exactly delighted that they had yet another rival, as I overheard them talking as I passed Suguha's room a few months later, but I had no intention to get romantically involved with another girl anytime soon.

The time I spent with Yuuki increased over the months and some of my friends started teasing me about my supposed feelings for the girl. But she only had a head start because around September all the other girls I knew from SAO and even Suguha tried to get me to spend time alone with them.

Asuna being the exception of course. Now that I think about it, I haven't heard anything from her since the day after Christmas. Not that I really wanted to see her but I expected at least some sort of apology, even if it was in form of a letter or e-mail.

And so I spent my time until Christmas Eve trying to avoid meeting any of the girls alone.

* * *

 **Christmas Eve**

* * *

 _General POV_

* * *

Kazuto had shut the door to his room and didn't want to come out until the next day. His family understood why and his friends, especially the girls, knew his reasons after he said that he didn't want to ruin Christmas for anyone.

Well, except for the girl whose red eyes were fixed on his windows as she made her way to the front door.

He was surfing the net as his door flew open.

"Yo Kazuto, get your coat we're going out today." Yuuki stated cheerfully.

"Where to?" the boy in question asked annoyed.

"The city." the intruder answered with a bright smile.

Kazuto heaved a deep sigh before answering.

"Does it matter if I refuse?" he asked as he got up.

"Nope." Yuuki answered as she tossed him the keys to his motorcycle.

Another sigh.

"Where did you get those anyway?" Kazuto asked, catching the keys without much thought while powering down his computer with his other hand.

"You always keep them in the right inside pocket of your jacket."

Walking down the stairs while bickering back and forth about his habits they didn't notice his mother smiling as she saw them heading out from the kitchen.

* * *

Luckily he was weaving through traffic and had to concentrate on the road or else his heart rate would have skyrocketed at the feeling of Yuuki clinging to his back.

He really wasn't in the mood to start another relationship after the last one had ended so abruptly, but he also wasn't stupid enough to just ignore how his feelings towards the girl on the backseat of his bike had changed over the last year.

Kazuto just wasn't ready to even think about starting a new, romantic, relationship with any of the girls he knew, or any other girl for that matter.

He took a deep breath to calm himself after he had parked the bike in front of the mall Yuuki had guided him to while he stored the helmets away before he let the girl lead him into the building.

They went from shop to shop and talked about all sorts of stuff while browsing through the record store or the video game assortment of a department store, to give just a few examples. To Kazuto it felt more like a shopping tour than anything else, but that was just fine with him. He probably would have fled otherwise.

They sat down on a bench right before a popular fast food restaurant after a while to rest and get something to eat.

"You mind getting some for me while I go and get a present for my big sis?" Yukki asked sweetly.

"Sure, just don't take too long or else it's going to get cold." Kazuto answered as he made his way into the restaurant.

It wasn't even five minutes after Yuuki had left as he sat back down on the bench, a paper bag with the logo of the fast food restaurant sitting next to him.

He just hoped none of the girls that had asked him out the week before would be going to the same mall his red eyed friend had dragged him to.

"H... hello, Kirito."

God. Damn. It.

The one person he really did not want to see had just appeared before him.

"Hello." he greeted back, trying to be as polite as possible.

A few moments of silence passed between them.

"Don't you want to introduce us?" Yuuki asked next to him.

He didn't even notice his company returning.

"Ahh… right." Kazuto said, snapping out of his daze and getting up.

"Konno Yuuki…" he extended one hand towards the black haired girl to his right.

"…meet Yuuki Asuna." he waved his hand over to the girl with the chestnut hair standing in front of them.

And he flinched a bit as he said her name out loud for the first time in the last year.

"Nice to meet you." Asuna bowed slightly.

Yuuki's eyes just narrowed as she heard the name.

"Where were you last year?" Yuuki's voice was missing the cheer Kazuto had grown so accustomed to over the last year.

"Huh?" Asuna was confused for just a moment before she went pale.

Kazuto had never seen his friend this serious since he had told her that he had bought a new motorcycle sometime during summer.

"I…" Asuna began but was interrupted before she could say another word.

"Let it go, Yuuki." Kazuto said with a hand on her shoulder.

"No! I want to know why this girl didn't even have the guts to apologize personally."

At that outburst people around them started watching the scene with varying degrees of interest.

That was not how Kazuto had thought this would turn out.

Not that he had thought something like this would happen at all.

Asuna stood there, fidgeting around with her hands uncomfortably as she thought about how to answer.

"I was held up with some family business." she finally answered.

"So held up that you couldn't even visit him after you put him in the hospital?"

Yuuki immediately shot down any confidence Asuna had worked up with that question.

Or she just saw through the excuse the girl in front of her had used.

"Until you can tell him the truth you don't deserve a second chance."

The red eyed girl turned to look at Kazuto and with a shrug just grabbed the almost forgotten paper bag and his hand, dragging him towards where he had parked his bike.

Once they were outside Kazuto leaned against his bike with a sigh.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked.

"Of course, I can't stand dishonest people like her." Yuuki answered before taking a burger out of the bag and taking a huge bite.

"You could have made less of a scene though…" Kazuto said with another sigh.

"That wouldn't be any fun." she said with a smile.

"You know I'm over her, right?"

"Yeah… and that's why you didn't want to leave your room today."

"…"

"Really?"

Yuuki shrugged as she stuffed the rest of the burger into her mouth. She took a step closer and swallowed the remnants of the fast food before she spoke up again.

"When did you start giving me the cold shoulder again?" she asked with a slightly sad look in her eyes.

A few, long, moments of silence followed and Kazuto looked away to avoid seeing the look in the red eyes he had grown so fond of over the last year right now.

"I just don't want to get hurt again." he mumbled.

"I don't think you have to worry about that." Yuuki whispered into his ear before she placed a kiss on his cheek.

* * *

 **A/N**

* * *

 _It took me a bit longer than I thought it would but I think it turned out pretty well._

 _Anyway, this came to me on a whim as I was listening to 'Last Christmas' on the radio... damn that song is annoying. But somehow the idea seemed great at the time._

 _I hope you'll leave a review... and maybe a fave._

 _Merry Christmas and a happy new year!_


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